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NYC child welfare investigators coerce, traumatize families, class-action lawsuit claims
By
Arya Sundaram
Published Feb 21, 2024
Modified Feb 21, 2024
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By
Arya Sundaram
Published Feb 21, 2024
Modified Feb 21, 2024
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A new federal class-action lawsuit claims New York City child welfare investigators routinely use “coercive tactics” that violate the Constitution and traumatize families under scrutiny.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court on Tuesday, alleges caseworkers for the Administration for Children's Services often pressure parents to enter and search their homes, including when there’s no emergency, with lies and threatening to call the police and take away their children.
The searches can be "invasive," the lawsuit claims, with ACS staff rifling through private spaces and strip-searching children, and leaving parents and children at risk of developing depression, anxiety and sleep disorders. And low-income Black and Latino families — who make up the overwhelming majority of those under child welfare investigations — disproportionately bear the consequences, the plaintiffs argue in court papers.
“ACS leaves in their wake real fear, real trauma, and real consequences that need to be accounted for,” said David Shalleck-Klein, an attorney for the nine families bringing the suit and the founder and director of the Family Justice Law Center.
Marisa Kaufman, an agency spokesperson, said in a statement that, “ACS is committed to keeping children safe and respecting parents’ rights,” adding that the agency has worked to increase transparency for parents and reduce the number of unnecessary investigations.
The lawsuit comes amid yearslong legislative efforts to reform child welfare investigations. State and local bills to institute "Miranda Rights for Families” would require ACS to inform parents under investigation of their ability to call a lawyer and deny investigators entry into their home, among other rights.
ACS announced a policy last month to provide written notices to parents of their rights during investigations, but parents’ rights advocates have criticized the letters as insufficient and potentially misleading.
Shalleck-Klein, a former public defender in family court, founded the Family Justice Law Center in 2022 to prevent unnecessary family separation and bolster the city’s legal advocacy for families’ rights in the child welfare system. He was one of the recipients of the $200,000 David Prize for New Yorkers who aim to solve pressing problems in the city.
ACS conducts over 50,000 investigations every year in a process that typically lasts about 60 days. Only 28.2% of ACS investigations last fiscal year resulted in findings of child neglect or the less common offense of abuse, according to the latest Mayor’s Management Report. And charges were brought to family court in under 7% of cases in 2022, agency officials testified to City Council.
The agency is required to investigate all reports of alleged child abuse and neglect made to the state's central hotline. Some of the reports are made by teachers, doctors, and other professionals who are legally required to report suspected maltreatment of children.
The lawsuit contends that under Fourth Amendment precedent, ACS workers are only allowed to search a family’s home when they have a warrant, it’s an emergency, or parents provide “voluntary consent.”
Yet nearly all of ACS’ searches are done without warrants, according to the suit. The agency only sought 222 warrants across its nearly 53,000 investigations last year. Additionally, the agency rarely claims its searches are being conducted pursuant to an emergency, according to the suit.
Shalleck-Klein said his goal isn’t for ACS to ban all investigations but rather for the agency to better train its investigators and institute policies to prevent coercion of parents.
“ACS falls short of what even the NYPD is doing when searching New Yorkers’ homes,” Shalleck-Klein said, pointing to the police department’s consent-to-search forms and more robust training for searches, while withholding comment on the overall adequacy of its search policies.
Black and Latino families made up about 80% of reported cases last year, according to ACS annual data, despite those groups representing just over half of the city's population.
The vast majority of reports – over 70% last year according to agency data — are for neglect, such as providing insufficient food or clothing, rather than physical or sexual abuse.
The lawsuit asks for money damages and an end to what it says are unconstitutional policies and practices.
This article was updated with additional data on ACS investigations.
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new york city
public safety
Race And Justice Unit
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Arya Sundaram
Arya is a reporter covering race and justice. Got a tip? Email: [email protected] or reach Arya on Signal at 512-650-8767.
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